Monday, November 29

Texas' BCS Chances

Texas’ BCS chances are pretty slim, at this point. Despite a solid 26-13 win over Texas A&M on Friday, the Horns weren’t able to move past Utah to #5 in the AP Top 25, though they’ve narrowed the gap to a mere 17 points. Since the BCS rankings now weight position in the polls more heavily than in years past, Texas really needed to move past Utah to make a run at Cal for the #4 spot in the BCS. Because Utah is going to finish in the top six in the BCS standings, they’re guaranteed a BCS bowl berth, which means Cal or Texas will be left out.

As things stand now, Texas only hope is that Cal slips in their season finale at Southern Mississippi. Should the Bears lose, Texas would certainly move to #4 and would be BCS-bound. The only other way Texas would get in is if Cal looked horrible in a victory and voters decided to move them down in the polls. Of course, Texas also has to hope that Auburn and Oklahoma both win their championship games. If not, Auburn or Oklahoma would take an at-large berth, while Colorado or Tennessee would steal an automatic berth. In the end, Texas fans should get used the idea of a trip to the Cotton Bowl…

On a side note, the pre-season ranking of teams is absolutely ridiculous and should be abandoned. If the BCS is going to weight position in the polls so heavily, then those who vote in the polls need to abandon the arcane pre-season ranking of teams which determines which one and two loss teams finish ahead of others.

Particularly annoying is the idea that undefeated Utah is ranked #5 in the AP poll, while undefeated Boise State is ranked #11. Is there any rationale behind this? In reality, pre-season voters thought Boise State would be down this year because they lost their two key offensive stars to the NFL while Utah brought back their core starters. Thus, Utah was ranked early in the year and Boise State wasn’t. Can anyone honestly tell me that Utah deserves to be ranked that much higher than Boise State? Frankly, I think the Broncos would beat the Utes in a head-to-head matchup. The computer rankings certainly recognize Boise’s dominance. And at this point, the pollsters love affair with Utah is keeping the Horns out of the BCS. Just in case we needed another reason to hate the BCS and demand a playoff…-PB-